Sandra VanderMey

Sandra VanderMey won first place awards in national and international art competitions for her unusual metalwork. She exhibited her jewelry and wall sculpture in galleries around the world including Great Britain, South Korea, Japan Sweden and Germany. Vogue Magazine commissioned her to design bracelets. Sandra's first wallpiece "Winterplanes" was selected by the Smithsonian for the Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian Magazine along with numerous other periodicals, newspapers and international publications, Ornament magazine, Metalsmith Magazine, American Craft magazine featured her metalwork. Public and private collectors, galleries and interior designers commissioned her wall work. With almost eighty galleries and stores worldwide selling Sandra's jewelry, from Colorado ski resorts, Ceasar's Palace and the New York Holography museum to Neiman Marcus Department Store, her career bloomed.

Sandra's first Master's degree she earned from the University of Iowa where she focused on coloring "exotic" metals, specifically creating thin-film interference colors on reactive metals, titanium, niobium and tantalum. Her second Masters, a Masters in Fine Arts degree was in holography and reactive metals. Sandra was distinguished by being the first student in the history of the University of Iowa to graduate with honors from their School of Art and Art History. After graduating she taught metalsmithing at Iowa State University, University of Iowa and Dordt college before moving to Los Angeles, California. Three weeks later she received a contract from Disney studios to do jewelry for Disneyland. Soon after, she began her career with Star Trek, creating wall sculpture for the television show. She produced numerous art pieces for the ships in all three Star Trek series, Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise. Her art also appeared in Star Trek's video games and in the feature film Star Trek Insurrection.

"I am inspired working with reactive metals. With titanium, tantalum and niobium I have discovered the best of two worlds, the beauty of an intense and pure painterly pallet and a tactile sense derived from working with metal. Both provide the perfect vehicle for expressing my love of nature.

All pieces seen here can be reproduced or are available for immediate sale